


Their Tailored Dreams

by Amour_mort88



Series: Tailored to My Liking [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Bullying, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:01:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24095503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amour_mort88/pseuds/Amour_mort88
Summary: Even Voldemort's down fall was pushed forward by machinations of a series.  Whereas before they let the world happen to them. Two boys meet and mold it to themselves.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Tom Riddle
Series: Tailored to My Liking [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1738447
Comments: 2
Kudos: 46





	Their Tailored Dreams

The very first thing Harry remembers of his unhappy past was running. Well, not really. He could definitely remember his life before he knew he was Harry and not the person his guardians told their neighbors about. It took him a while to figure out the Harry they whispered about during his Aunts garden parties in the spring or while he was working outside on the lawn was him and not some other person in the Dursley house he couldn’t find. The trouble maker who was taken in and taken care of, using up all the goodness in the Dursley home.

No wonder the little Dursley boy picked with the other one. He must be defending his parents when they’re not around. Oh, Dudley and his friends are such good boys for playing with that troublesome one, just how are they handling him so well?

Harry didn’t know who this bad boy was but are they being treated better than he was? Did they have a room in the house like Harry? Did it have a personal light just for them and was it the perfect size for them like Harry’s? It was nothing like Dudley’s room that could fit a full bed, toys, games, and a large window but it did fit Harry. And the light. And the spiders and dust bunnies that kept him company when his tiny stomach began to hurt. But the little room was what Harry knew to be his. They locked him in it every night and told boy to go there whenever they said he was being too freakish.

Since the other boy, this Harry, they kept speaking about was so much worse, boy should be relieved. This Harry sounded like someone the Dursley’s wouldn’t even give their bread crusts to unlike boy. Would someone so terrible even be allowed in the same house as this? They seemed to already be unhappy with boy. Maybe the other one will be abandoned first, and boy will have a few more years to fix his freakishness and then he can be happy like Dudley.

At least boy thought this until he figured out the troublesome boy they were speaking of was Harry and Harry was boy. No one else in the house was being given less food than him nor were they being locked away in a darker place, kept away from the perfect Dursley family at all costs.

He was thinking too hard when he should be running.

Harry was gasping for air while his tweed like legs attempted to carry him to safety. Really nowhere was safe from Big Dee and his friends but Harry hoped that they would get bored soon enough. They chased him often enough where he was getting better at hiding and running but sometimes the adults worked against him.

“C’mon Harry! We just want to play!” Dudley panted out. This was a good thing for Harry. He just needed to last a little bit longer.

Harry’s chest was burning along with his stomach. He didn’t actually have the energy to be exercising like this, having only had a small meal for lunch that day in school and no hope of dinner that night. His legs were beginning to burn as well, and his raggedy too small shoes were definitely blistering his feet. No matter what he couldn’t stop his escape. He didn’t want to return to his cupboard with another set of bruises and broken limbs that would take just a few days to heal. That would lead to his uncle harassing him for showing off his freakish healing speed and welts made by the sting of his uncle’s belt.

Harry stumbled over a rock and caught himself by his hands to give another push. “please, I’m almost there. I can do it. I can make it to somewhere safe.” The young boy needed to verbalize his belief although reluctant tears began to blur his eyes. The thought of another cycle of pain enough to him a gust of power.

“Get back here, Potter!” Another reminder of why he needed to run. Harry could feel the trees whipping by him in his peripherals as he begged his body to make it the house. The park they were tearing through was two or three blocks away from his goal. He might have been in pain at the moment, but Dudley was struggling as well with his large body and spectacularly short legs.

“I can make it, I can make it, I’ll be safe I can make it.” Harry kept his eyes forward toward his goal. “One more block.” He forced out, the hope of victory nearly blinding him along with his tears.

“POTTER!” Dudley bellowed out. How the walrus could still breath after all the running they were doing was quite impressive until tripped once again. His eyes stayed wide open as he knew he couldn’t recover as well from this fall as he had the other time. His legs had worked too hard. His lungs could push no further, and the rest of his limbs were far too heavy for him to force more movement from.

The gravel he laid on pushed into his skin and he listened with a heavy heart to the gang catching up to him steadily.

“Haha! The freak fell on his face. Maybe we won’t have to do as much work on it as usual.” Harry could hear them gloating.

He shut his eyes tight and curled up his body protectively with what little time he had. “I needed just a little more. Just a little longer, I was almost there” he whimpered, “I just want to be safe, I was almost there, I could have been safe with just one more minute.”

Take me somewhere safe.

And he was gone.

* * *

  
  
  


“ _ Nagini, will you come with me when I finally get out of here? _ ” A young boy hissed out in a soft and pleasant tone. He was sitting outside hiding among tall trees and bushes not too far away from a litany of happy squeals of other children but enough where he shouldn’t be easily found.

“ _Of course hatchling. Nagini has found you and Nagini will keep you.”_ The snake stated firmly. It was difficult to see who or what this child was making silly sounds at but if you were to face where the child was, a small grey-brown stout bodied snake with black zig-zags along its back and a tiny horn atop its snout. Any person would believe this child to be in great danger for playing around with a reptile that could bite but this child had learned to think of all scaled animals as conversation partners and friends.

_ “Little hatchling should become stronger before escaping nest. Nagini will try to keep hatchling safe but hatchling has no venom like Nagini for protection. Hatchling might be in danger if hatchling leaves too soon.”  _ This was a common argument between the two as the young boy thought living with a snake would lead to a better life than the one he was suffering through while sharing with the overflow of children within his orphanage.

“ _ I am in danger here as well, Nagini. The other children and adults can’t be trusted.”  _ He thrust out with a scowl on his still chubby face.

_ “This is true but hatchling still has nest and food until hatchling grows more.”  _ Nagini understood the risk of not having the little bit of protection the child was already being offered and would not allow him to throw it away too quickly.

“Fine.” he mumbled out grumpily  _ “I’ll stay a little while longer. I need to have something to prepare a new nest, yes? For protection and food? Then you think I’ll be ready to leave this place with you Nagini?”  _ The little one refused to actually take no for an answer, but showed he had some understanding of the snake’s reluctance to leave his current home. 

_“Hatchling, there is a visitor it seems.”_ The child straightened his body in shock and proceeded to twist his head in either direction warily. Nagini had noticed the scent of another human becoming stronger the longer it sat but had not noticed how close the other seemed to be. _“Go check hatchling. I will hide and wait for your return. You must not tell of Nagini and stay safe.”_ With that she slithered off into one of the larger bushes of shade.

The child scowled at the interruption while dusting off his shorts. Never before had Nagini needed to leave before the little one. Every morning he would get through his chores, eagerly thinking of reconnecting with the horned snake and what he would learn or talk about that day. He rarely spoke to the other children within the orphanage and when they did deign to speak to him their sentences were filled with spit, insults and fear. People who could not hide their fear within their hatred were not worth more than the time needed to move past them. Still, he stood and lazily searched for said interloper so he could determine whether a punishment was needed or not.

He slowly creeped through the underbrush when finally he saw the other child, curled up and shaking in a ball. Either they had been lying there for a while or they had been beaten up since their clothing was filled with dirt and completely engulfed their body. The child needed to shuffle closer to the other to see how they were shivering in what could be fear and had their eyes tightly shut.

“Please don’t hurt me. Please don’t hurt me,” The stranger mumbled “We have to get back soon. They’re expecting us, Aunty should already be home. You can finish tomorrow, but please leave me.” The stranger was obviously not entirely aware of the lack of the large bullies they must be pleading to.

“What exactly are you doing over there and who are you mumbling to? This is my space! I’ve already warned the rest of them to leave me be while I’m out here. Show yourself!” the child yelled petulantly. 

The stranger jumped in shock, he didn’t recognize the voice that was calling for his attention. Slowly he uncoiled from the tiny ball he had been set in to look towards this new young character. The child in rough baggy clothes also had crummy, cracked glasses hanging off of his nose and a messy mop of black hair to top him off. His trainers had seen better days with the holes that littered the sides from being pushed to the limits of their capabilities. This wasn’t an odd site for the snake child that had come upon him but even the orphanage might have said something about such clothing choices by now.

Rat nest head sniffled, “Um, who are you? How did I end up over here? I had just been down the street from my aunts house. Have you seen my cousin and his friends around here?” He sat up straight and glanced around warily searching for his walrus of a cousin. They might have let him off of the beating outside but the boy didn’t know how long he had been laying there. With enough time Dudley could have spoken enough lies where being home is more of a terrible idea than an extension of Dudders playtime outside. Rat nest hated the amount of running he did every day but at the same time he was doing Dudley a favor by giving him a little exercise each day. That would put off his death by suffocation from fat for a few years longer.

“I haven’t seen or heard anyone else around here. You’re the only body I’ve noticed and I want to know how you hid here for so long.” The boy on the ground looked around once again in confusion before answering.

“I don’t even know where I am. I couldn’t have gotten too far from my aunts home. Could you tell me where I am? Who are you? Where am I?”

“I’m Tom. You’re in my space and we’re right beside Wool’s Orphanage in London.”

**Author's Note:**

> Howdy y'all I'm trying this craziness once more! I'm trying to work on imagery in my writing so if you have any advice on where I can expand or anything grammar wise I can work on that'd be awesome sauce! 
> 
> This'll be more like a series than a chaptered work so hang out if I peak ya interest


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